Tough year for wife of man detained as spy in Cuba

Judy Gross, whose husband Alan Gross has been detained in Cuba, pauses during an interview at her home in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
— AP

Judy Gross, whose husband Alan Gross has been detained in Cuba, pauses during an interview at her home in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
/ AP

Judy Gross, whose husband Alan Gross has been detained in Cuba, pauses during an interview at her home in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)— AP

Judy Gross, whose husband Alan Gross has been detained in Cuba, pauses during an interview at her home in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
/ AP

Judy Gross, whose husband Alan Gross has been detained in Cuba, gestures during an interview at her home in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)— AP

Judy Gross, whose husband Alan Gross has been detained in Cuba, gestures during an interview at her home in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
/ AP

WASHINGTON 
In the year her American husband has been detained in Cuba, accused of spying for the U.S., Judy Gross has been forced to sell the family home in Maryland and move into a small apartment in Washington. Her younger daughter, distraught and crying as her father's birthday approached, crashed and totaled her car. Her older daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

More than 1,100 miles away, Alan Gross passes the time in a Cuban military hospital, watching baseball on a small television or jamming with his jailers on a stringed instrument they gave him.

When he left for Cuba last December, his wife says he planned to spend just 10 days there helping to set up Internet access for members of the country's small Jewish population, believed to number about 1,500.

He was arrested at his hotel a year ago Friday, accused by Cuban President Raul Castro and other senior leaders of spying.

"Every morning I wake up and for a few seconds it's like a normal morning, and then I remember ... he's gone," Judy Gross told The Associated Press in an interview.

His detention has become a sticking point in relations between the U.S. and Cuba, two countries that have been at odds for decades. U.S. officials have denied claims he is a spy and said no progress can be made on relations until Gross is released.

His work was part of a program of the U.S. Agency for International Development, a government agency that provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide but has also been criticized by Cuba for seeking to promote democratic change on the island.

The specifics of what he was doing or what he might have done to upset the Cuban government are unclear.

Judy Gross is adamant that her husband is not a spy. After all, she says, why would the U.S. government pick someone who didn't know Spanish?

"He's a humanitarian, an idealist, and probably was naive and maybe not understanding enough of what he was getting himself into ... that he could be arrested," she said.

The Cuban government did not respond to requests for comment, but officials have said previously that there is nothing unusual about how long he has spent in jail without being charged.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Judy Gross was meeting with State Department officials Thursday afternoon to discuss the case.

"We will continue to use all available channels to urge the Cuban government to show humanitarian compassion and put an end to Mr. Gross' long and unjustifiable ordeal," Crowley said.

Judy Gross doesn't know what he might have put in his suitcase, whether he had electronic equipment that could have angered the Cuban government, which keeps strict control over communication on the island. But she says he never went anywhere without his laptop and a cell phone.

His wife says he was working at a Jewish community center in Havana, helping Jewish groups on the island communicate with one another and get access to the Internet so they could look at Wikipedia and online prayer books. The visit was his fifth to help the same group, Judy Gross said.